Lamorinda Tales: When Good Remodels Go Bad

At a Lafayette dinner party not long ago a very nice woman, dressed to the nines and approachable, was seen wearing a t-shirt over her blouse with the query: "Have You Seen My Contractor?" emblazoned across the front.

Turned out she had embarked on a kitchen remodel, handing over "good faith money" to a contractor who promptly went missing.

"His phone is no longer in service and the only address I have is a P.O. Box," she said. "He's got $25,000 of mine and I was hoping to get it back. He didn't drive a single nail in my kitchen..."

As it turns out, she isn't alone. Several people have contacted Patch in recent weeks to talk about similar occurrences. One such case, involving multiple households and one local contractor, resonated with us.

"I am writing as a victim of a Lamorinda con artist posing as a local contractor," one Lafayette man wrote. "In total, he scammed 5 local families of a total approaching $1 million in 2009-2010. He remains in the area, and (is) living in Lafayette..."

Patch has confirmed that the contractor in question had his license revoked last year and is currently being investigated by several agencies, including the county District Attorney -- but the people he allegedly defrauded hold little hope of ever recovering their money.

Attempts to contact him for his side of the story have, so far, failed to bear fruit as numbers given for his business are no longer in service.

But what happened between this particular contractor and Lamorindans looking to remodel their homes is well documented and a matter of public record.

In a complaint compiled by attorneys in the state Attorney General's Office and brought before the Registrar of Contractors State Licensing Board, the cases of several Lamorinda families are detailed.

Documents filed in support of the families' cases indicate that a contractor's license for "Contractor X" was issued in January of 2006 -- and temporarily suspended for various violations a number of times between then and January 2010.

In December of 2008, records show, "X" entered into a contract with a Lafayette resident who hired him to do a million dollar remodel of his home. According to court documents, the contractor asked for and received $44,000 in advance and was ultimately granted $1.2 million to complete the project under the terms of their agreement. As work progressed, a steady stream of subcontractors reported completing work X had directed them to do but never being paid, even though the homeowner had already given the contractor money to do just that.

In November of 2009, records show, the contractor had his license suspended and a month later "walked away" from the million dollar makeover project he had been hired to do, leaving a long list of unfinished projects in his wake.

"Respondent failed to account for the money received on the... project," investigators for the state Contractors State Licensing Board wrote. "(Homeowner) will have to pay a substantial sum above the contract price to complete the work contracted for..."

But things didn't stop there. Records show that in May 2009 Contractor X undertook a project for an Orinda homeowner hoping to build an addition to his residence, the contractor demanding and getting $36,000 in advance of any work actually performed. Between May and November of that year, the contractor was paid an additional $287,000 with the homeowner writing additional checks to subcontractors -- to the tune of $32,000 -- on the contractor's behalf.

Painters, a lumber company and a construction supply company reported not being paid, and the subcontractors immediately filed a series of mechanics liens against the homeowner's residence. It was at this point, the state alleges, that Contractor X forged a Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress form borrowed from the previous remodel and averred that he had paid all subcontractors when, in fact, he had not.

Again, it was alleged, the contractor abandoned the project, leaving the homeowner with an unfinished home, considerable additional costs to complete his project -- and with liens against his property.

After a project gone awry in Emerald Hills, CA in which X allegedly contracted with an unlicensed subcontractor and again forged an additional waiver in order to secure payment for work, the contractor returned to Lafayette and entered into an agreement with a couple hoping to renovate their residence in October 2009.

Again, the contractor asked for and received a down payment of $35,000 and ultimately secured another $104,000 for work on the residence -- which investigators said did not exceed $29,000 in actual value of work done and left a lengthy laundry list of work untouched and the residents seething.

Ultimately, after complaints by homeowners and their own investigation, the Contractors License Board ordered that Contractor X's license be revoked in May of last year -- small consolation to those who feel they were swindled.

"The DA apparently is investigating but this is occurring at a glacial pace," said a Lafayette resident who entered into a contract with "X" and came to regret it. "Unfortunately, he walked away with over $100,000 of my money, and it remains incredible to me that nothing has happened!"